Comex A Zombie Market: Hedge Funds Record Short Paper Gold

Comex A Zombie Market: Hedge Funds Record Short Paper Gold

Gold didn’t “hit a low,” it was driven down by the bullion banks who are agents of the Fed, acting on the Fed’s orders…the price of gold is not determined in the market in which gold actually gets bought and sold, it’s determined in a paper futures market in which the contracts are settled in cash. – Paul Craig Roberts on King World News

The Comex is like a grade-B horror movie – night of the living dead. Zombies that wreak havoc on society but can’t be destroyed. The Comex is the consummate symbol of the United States. It embodies extreme fraud, corruption, wealth theft, market manipulation, regulatory capture, etc. It is the ultimate manifestation of the end of Rule of Law in this country.

Last week the “managed money” hedge fund segment of the Comex took on a record net short position in Comex paper gold. As reported to the CFTC from the CME bullion bank trading reports, hedge funds are now net short over 16,000 contracts representing over 1.6 million ozs of paper gold – over 46 tons. Conversely, the “swap dealer” segment – otherwise known as the bullion banks – have assumed a record net long position of 29.5k paper gold contracts.

Now, assuming we accept the COT report prima facie – and this can be a problematic assumption considering that the data originates from the highly corrupted bullion banks – whenever the hedge fund trader class net position has reached an extreme level in either direction, and the banks take the other side of that position, the price of gold has always eventually moved inversely to the hedge fund positioning.

Meanwhile, the amount of gold that has been declared to be available for delivery into contracts standing for delivery has diminished down to 138k ozs as of last Friday. Against the net short of the hedge funds, this implies that the hedge funds are short 11.5 ozs of paper gold for every ounce of real gold made available for delivery. If this ratio of paper to the real underlying commodity developed in any other commodity market the CFTC would step in an enforce the laws enacted to prevent this type of market manipulation.

The reason I now reference the Comex as a “Night of the Living Dead” zombie market is because this trading pattern between the bullion banks and the hedge funds has been in repetition since at least the time I began my involvement in the precious metals market nearly 15 years ago. It never received the kind of attention it gets now until after the big smash started in 2011. By then it was too late because the CFTC, SEC, Justice Department and Oval Office advisory staff had been stuffed with Wall Street’s emissaries, primarily of the Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan variety. It’s Wall Street’s version of using pedophiles to supervise the daycare school.

Based on history, it would appear that the hedge fund/swap dealer net position is indicating that the price of gold may be in for a wild ride higher at some point. But don’t expect this to happen immediately. I expect the hedge funds to get aggressive in trying to push the price of gold lower in order to “harvest” their short position. I mentioned to colleagues last week that this would explain the erratic, volatile intra-day moves in the price of gold we started to see recently.

Today is a good example, as gold traded up overnight – in the Asian physical markets referenced at the top by Dr. Roberts – only to be smashed just before data was released showing a collapse in U.S. manufacturing – data that should have been bullish for gold. However, if you want to trade on the side of the Government insiders – the bullion banks – now is a good time to buy the price smacks and sell the ensuing push higher. At some point the banks will decide to fleece the hedge funds once again and take the price of gold higher, forcing the hedge fund black boxes to cover their shorts.

Wash, rinse, repeat. You may ask yourself, how do you kill a zombie? As a market for the trading of physical gold and silver, the Comex is already dead. At some point, the entities who have stuck around to try their hand in the rigged paper game will either go broke or simply fade away. At that point, the bullion banks will be left to play only with themselves. I suspect, however, at that point the U.S. economic, financial and political system will be in outright collapse.